October 2005 »

If you buy his statistics, you have to come to the realization that the Republican party is comprised of two groups of people whose views on some rather key issues are diametrically opposed. One group wants the government to butt out and let the people make their own value judgments; the other wants the government to butt in and enforce obedience to some national standard of traditional values.

And yet the two groups feel a kinship, because both groups have arbitrarily chosen to identify with the arbitrary label “Republican”.

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Editorials like this one titled “Why Bother Voting?” kind of make me sad. The fact that the question even needs to be asked really represents a failure of civic education and political participation in this country.

I often find myself having to justify to other people why I care so much about civic involvement, why I can’t just accept that the system is corrupt, take a few deep breaths, and maybe go take a nice bubble bath instead of say, writing treatises about civic engagement on my web site. The general sentiment seems to be that I’m naive, or too idealistic, or at least have too much free time.

Well, I am kind of an idealist, but I’m not naive, and I definitely don’t have too much free time. I’m just from Wisconsin, a state with a uniquely civic-minded culture.

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Want to see some real-live gerrymandering? Check out some fun Congressional District shapes as illustrated on Wikipedia.

“Please,” Alice begged, “I’ll do my best to learn about the electoral system of Wonderland, if only you will explain it.”

“Very well,” the Queen said. “But I must warn you, the more I explain about Plurality Voting, the less you will understand it. For example, the most important part of our system of Plurality Voting by Single-Member Districts is the shape of the district.”

And it only gets better (and truer) from there. I highly recommend reading it; it’s a great piece, even if you, unlike me, don’t have an undying love of all things Alice.

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